1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a spare wheel for and method of rendering a wheeled vehicle operational for emergency roadway use in the event of a flat tire condition of a main wheel of the vehicle and, more particularly, to a spare wheel which is very rapidly and easily mounted alongside the main wheel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is customary to change a flat tire on a vehicle such as an automobile by jacking up the automobile so that the flat tire is lifted off the ground and, thereupon, by removing the main wheel on which the flat tire is mounted in an axially outward direction. Then a spare wheel is substituted for the removed wheel. The spare wheel may be a full-size or, in some late model cars, a reduced-size replacement. In either event, the main wheel with the flat tire must be entirely removed from the vehicle so that the spare wheel can be substituted therefor.
Although such tire changing techniques and apparatuses are generally satisfactory for their intended purpose and have, in fact, been in use for many years, they have not proven to be altogether convenient or safe to utilize in practice. For example, many individuals do not have the inclination or the strength to jack up an automobile, remove the main wheel having the flat tire, and then substitute the spare wheel for the removed wheel. Also, it could happen that the automobile may slip off the jack and, if this occurs when the main wheel is off, considerable damage could result to the automobile. In addition, often the tire on the spare wheel is not sufficiently inflated, so that it is useless until reinflated. In addition, the full-size and, to a lesser extent the reduced-size, spare wheels are still undesirably heavy and large, and occupy too much of the available space in the vehicle trunk or rear compartment. This available space is more and more at a premium as automobiles and their correspondingly-sized trunk compartments are down-sized.